


Greed

by Sly_Helador



Series: Sly's writing class [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Character Death, Dystopia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:00:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21735676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sly_Helador/pseuds/Sly_Helador
Summary: A young man racked with coughs.
Series: Sly's writing class [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1469705
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Greed

Leaves and other bits of plant life are gathered into a pile meters high. Then a small team of people dressed in flame repellent clothes draw closer. They lift up an almost impossibly big hose and dose the pile in a layer of oil. Then a single match is lit, thrown, and explodes.

The flame dances up the walls and tickle the ceiling of the incinerator. Slowly the fuel of the fire burns away leaving only smoke and ash. The smoke creeps through the slits left in the masks of the workers. 

One worker is racked by coughs once the new plume of smoke hits him. The hacks coming from him are settled deep in his lungs and rattle down to the bones. During this coughing spell a blue light flashes from above and all the workers start wandering out to their small lockers. They then head out through the front and seperate down different paths. 

Smog thins as they walk outside and away from the incineration plant but breathing does not get any easier. The smog outside is so thick that no one can see down the hill that the plant sits on. Large smoke stacks rise up even higher than the hill but they do little good in stopping the smog from reaching the city. Other city’s smog reaches them just fine. 

He walks along the path that leads to his housing unit. Its worn down like every other building and structure in this city. The weeds and grass took its toll and littered it with cracks and holes down its entirety. The multitude of people that walk its path also contribute to its broken state.

The trees that surround the path loom over the tired workers walking forward. The green of their leaves are almost saturated compared to the drab path and pale workers. Flowers in full bloom and leaves blanket the ground with not a sign of decay among them. The next day they will disappear, having been swept up by workers and sent off to the same incinerator that everyone is walking away from.

Another coughing spell hits the young man and stops him in his tracks. The other workers just walk around him. Then a hand rushes out and hits him once in the center of his back, stopping the spell.

“You know kid, maybe it’s about time you get that cough checked out,” says an older man behind him. He was the one to help with the spell. 

“They wouldn’t be able to do anything for it. Everyone has trouble breathing and most medicines for it don’t work anymore. I’ve already been,” the young man rasps. 

“Then medicine might not be what you need. Come over to my house tonight and I’ll make you some hearty food to boost you up. Just don’t cough up your lungs before that, ya’hear?” the man jokes. A group of men all about the same age call out to him. He sends a quick smile to the young man and jogs over to them.

“Alright,” the young man says quietly but too late for the older man to hear. His pace is shorter than all the others since his sickness caused a stunt in his growth. Step by step the others lead ahead of him until all that is left around are the sounds of the plants rustling from the wind. 

He looked down at himself, noticing his thin legs and knobby knees. It’s now a common look for young people. The smog and pesticides having a negative effect on the growth of children.

If people weren’t so greedy, this would not have happened in the first place. Some rich and powerful people decided that they needed to live forever and almost succeeded. They happened upon a formula that worked on all plantlife, but too well. This was leaked into the ecosystem and spread throughout the whole world. And now it takes the effort of the whole world to combat the undying plant life. 

However, the rich people are still protected. They get to live in their fancy homes with their families far away from the pollution. The young man looks towards the end of the pathway and starts to see the housing apartments sitting in row upon row. He seethes in anger and his stride turns more into a stomp. 

The act of a few changed the world for everyone. Now no one was happy in this world.

In an act of defiance, the man shifted his course slightly and walked into the woods off the path. If he had to suffer this life because of the few, he could find slight enjoyment from somewhere. 

He follows down a less man-made path. It leads down towards a small alcove filled with grasses and flowers with a small stump in the middle. Leaning against the stump is an old fashioned axe.

The young man grasps the handle of the axe tightly and sits down to gather some breath into his weak lungs. After a couple of minutes he stands, saunters over to a nearby tree with a marking on the side from his previous days work. The axe is lifted and swung down into the marking. Swing after swing after swing. 

The tree falls to the ground. The young man tosses the axe back towards his sitting stump and pushes the log towards a pile of logs on the other side of the alcove. His cough comes back in full from the force of the exercise. But even the hacks do not stop the man from his mission. Once the man sends a last bit of force through the log and it sets next to the others the adrenaline leaves him and he hits the ground. 

Coughs are pulled from his body with so much force that he cannot move. The only sound around is that of his loud coughing. 

The last bit of energy leaves with each cough. Slowly he stills, and lays for his final breath.

Once the sound of his coughs fades away, a small butterfly soars down and lands just in front of his fingertips.


End file.
